Indian Science Congress: Consistent Attack on Scientific Reasoning and Enquiry
The recently concluded annual circus of Indian science - the106th session of Indian Science Congress held at Lovely Professional University, was an apt sequel of the previous few science congresses, particularly the ones held from 2015 onwards. Amidst thousands of presentations made in the congress, one G. Nageswara Rao, vice chancellor of Andhra University and a professor of inorganic chemistry, presented a paper claiming that the Kauravas of Mahabharata, were born out of stem cell research and test tube fertilization process. Rao said, "...It happened a few thousand years ago. This was science in this country. Mahabharata says, 100 eggs were fertilized, and put to 100 earthen pots. Are they not test tube babies? Stem cell research in this country was present thousands of years ago."i He went ahead saying that Ravana had 24 different types of airplanes, and Sri Lanka at that time, had airports. He also had his theories about evolution, wherein he challenged the Darwinian theory and claimed that the "Dasavatara" - 10 incarnations of Vishnu - was much advanced in explaining the evolution. Rao made these statements in a session that consisted mostly of children. In the same session, another so-called scientist from some centre in Tamil Nadu, K. J. Krishnan, rubbished Newton and Einstein and proposed his own theory of gravitation. He said that in future when his theory gets accepted, the gravitational waves would be named as "Narendra Modi waves" and gravitational lensing would be known as "Harsh Vardhan effect."
The above cannot be ignored or disregarded as isolated acts of stray imbecile "scientists". Such claims have clearly become a trend in the Science Congress sessions and elsewhere over the last few years. In 2015, soon after the present BJP government assumed power, a new session on "Ancient sciences through Sanskrit" was introduced in the 102nd Indian Science Congress held at Mumbai University. In this session, two scientists named Anand J. Bodas and Ameya Jadhav jointly presented a paper, claiming that aircrafts more advanced than today's versions existed in ancient India, during the Vedic age, dating back to 1500-500 BC. During an interview, these people claimed that such aircrafts were huge, could fly backwards, left or right, and even flew to other planets. Some of the other claims made in this congress were that cows carry a bacteria that can turn anything they consume into 24-karat gold and a helmet from the Mahabharata war can be found on Mars. But why blame these petty, unknown scientists who barely managed a slot to present their work in a session or got a chance to display their posters in a huge fair called Indian science congress? During the inauguration of the 2015 Congress, the minister of science and technology, who was and still is, also the minister of environment, forest and climate change and the minister of earth sciences, Dr. Harsh Vardhan claimed that algebra and Pythagoras theorem was known to the Indians much before the Greeks or the Arabs. Couple of years later, the same minster, who was still the supreme person in the department of science and technology, went ahead to claim in the inaugural session of the 105th Indian Science Congress that Stephen Hawking considered the Vedas to have a theory superior to Einstein?s mass energy equivalence. He later tweeted, "Each and every custom and ritual of Hinduism is steeped in science....".ii
In 2016, prior to the 103rd edition of the gala event held in Mysuru, the general secretary of the Indian Science Congress association, Arun Kumar assured that this time the presentations will stick to the basic or applied science, keeping out mythology from their annual jamboree. Notwithstanding, such assurances, Rajeev Sharma, a senior IAS officer presented a paper eulogizing the effect of conch (shankh) blowing, which according to him is capable of treating both the body and the mind by addressing the root cause of all ailments. Another paper that was accepted and was supposed to be presented in the 2016 Congress was "Lord Shiva: As the Greatest Environmentalist in the World." However, the presenter finally did not turn up due to some injury.
The list runs long, and why should it not when the prime minister himself endorsed and publicly articulated such preposterous ideas on several occasions. We all remember Modi?s claims that elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha is an example of ancient plastic surgery, and the birth of Karna outside his mother?s womb as depicted in Mahabharata, speaks of the existence of genetic technology in ancient India. As the chief minister of Gujarat, he had written a foreword to a book written by the ardent RSS worker Dina Nath Batra and tried to introduce it as a mandatory reading for school students. The book was full of such outrageous claims besides advocating Akhand Bharat (that incorporates all of SAARC plus Burma and Tibet), openly promoting superstition, racism and suggesting magical remedies by citing gau seva as a cure for childlessness.
There are numerous incidents and anecdotes to show how the virulent hindutva hardliners under the leadership of the Sangh Parivar, have waged a systematic attack on scientific reasoning and enquiry; how they have tried to replace evidence based arguments and rigorous scientific investigation by "beliefs", myths and by scriptures of Hindu texts. They have consistently attempted to uphold and assert "Hindu India?s" past scientific achievements and project such assertions as the hallmark of true nationalism. Many critiques of the Sanghis have retorted by claiming - indeed there were many scientific and technological achievements in ancient India and we should rightly take pride in those marvels, but "the facts" should be should be carefully separated from "the myths". The past achievements of a particular society is definitely of concern to the historians. However, we completely fail to comprehend why common people should be incited to bask in the reflected glory of the accomplishments of their ancestors. If the Greeks start taking pride in their ancient achievements, the Chinese begin boasting of the innumerable discoveries made in ancient China or the Arabs find solace in what they had achieved thousands of years ago - what purpose will it serve? Why should we attempt to locate advances in science and technology within the ill-defined boundaries of a nationality or a community?
Of course the world has witnessed different epicenters of scientific and technological discoveries which have shifted and evolved with the progress of the human civilization. North America and parts of Europe have been the seat of modern scientific discoveries, but it will be very difficult to associate them to past achievements of any particular community or any particular geographical region. The Greek scientists played a leading role in the development and advancement of astronomy and mathematics in ancient times but fell miserably behind when much of rest of Europe and America surged ahead during and after the industrial revolution. Geographical areas like the Middle East and Egypt, Indus valley, parts of South America, etc., where the seeds of science and technology were sown by the ancient civilizations, are some of the most under developed areas of the present world. Tracking such shifts based on how a particular society changed and evolved historically, is a complex issue and is not the concern of this article. However, it may be pertinent to note that time and societal necessity have been the two major drivers for ushering major breakthroughs in science or technology. No scientific discovery has ever happened in abstraction. For example, it is well documented that human beings, inspired by the birds, aspired to fly for thousands of years. There had been innumerable efforts to build aviation devices across the globe spread over hundreds of years. However, only in the beginning of the twentieth century human beings were successful in developing working out airplanes. Along with the Wright Brothers? who are credited with the discovery of airplane, which was first published in January 1906, a French engineer Traian Vuia successfully launched short-powered flight just two months later in March, 1906, while a Danish watch maker, Jacob Ellehammer did the same in September, 1906. Besides, the well-known historical incidents like simultaneous invention of calculus by Newton and Leibnitz, or almost concurrent formulation of theory of natural selection by Darwin and Wallace, there are abundant evidences to show that scientific discoveries are essentially products of time and dependent on the overall development of human civilization. When the time became ripe - in the sense of overall developments in science, technology and society as a whole - discoveries always found their ways through individuals or groups of individuals who were engaged and most equipped to give a shape to the inventions. In all their claims on ancient Hindu achievements of science, the Sangh Parivar is consistently attacking this very foundation of scientific enquiry and achievements and trying to subvert logical reasoning with blind faith and unfounded belief.
The design of the Sangh Parivar in carrying out their saffronization program involves targeting young and immature minds and mould them in a way that instigates blind faith based on strong emotive association. This is a classical way how a fascist organization advances with its goal. One of the best ways to achieve this goal is to instill a sense of pride in what may be constructed as "our lost glory". Of course, by "our" the Sangh Parivar means only the Hindus and their consistent appeal to look up in pride to "our glorious past" has always been targeted to emotionalize the Hindu masses by providing them with "virtues" of the past that they can boast for. It is very important for them to uphold and publicize things that can potentially elevate the minds of the poor and downtrodden Hindu masses, who at present, just like the poor toiling masses of any other community, have virtually nothing to look forward to, nothing to claim as their own glory or nothing to rest their hope for a brighter future. A constant propaganda in such lines can actually impart a false sense of identity and provide a ray of hope in conjuring up a society based on revival of the "lost glory". Particularly, in the present scenario when there is a palpable latent yearning for change but virtually no struggle of the toiling masses challenging the present order, when their past struggles against the ruling classes have been betrayed and stands abysmally defeated, when it has become extremely difficult to see any light for building a better future - it has usually been the construction of a "glorious past" that tends to reflect some light in the dark existence of the exploited and the downtrodden and instigate them to bask in the reflected glory. Therefore, on the one hand such propaganda helps in providing a false identity and dignity to the hapless teeming millions of Hindus, while on the other hand, they obstruct the development of a critical mind that tries to examine things on the basis of objective reasoning. Consequently, such propaganda are of paramount importance to the Sangh Parivar.
With that purpose in mind the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, is using the existing institutions of so-called scientific discourse in advancing their program to attack scientific reasoning. And why not? The overwhelming presence of the dominant Hindu culture had always existed and was nourished in the so-called institutions of science. Let us take the example of the Indian Science Congress to understand this very simple point. Year after year, the sessions of "Science Congress" were inaugurated by Hindu chants; tributes were paid to Hindu gods and overtly Hindu rituals were performed under the guise of Indian tradition. Robert Anderson of Simon Fraser University, observes in his book how at the end of an academic session of an Indian Science Congress in 1998, "a very large crowd gathered and the path was strewn with rose petals by beautiful young women" and how an exclusive audience listened in rapt attention to Swami Ramachandran expounding on the "synthesis between spirituality and science, all for the greater glory of India".iii Therefore, while trying to resist the hindutva onslaught of the Sangh Parivar, it would be a great mistake to forget what has led them to this position and has virtually set the stage for them to carry out their attack on science and reasoning.
Majority of the Indian scientists and academicians have been trying their best to prove their loyalty to the hinutva agenda. Vice-chancellors of universities and directors of institutions, who were close to the erstwhile Congress government are now found hobnobbing in the saffron corridors of political power and trying to prove their commitment to Hindu glory. However, a small section of the Indian scientific community has also consistently raised their voice against the venture of the Sangh Parivar to saffronize science and education, and some of them have paid dearly for their defiance. It will be unfortunate if these protests get usurped by narrow politics of electoral gains and losses. Without contesting and confronting the basis, the foundation on which the hindutva bandwagon is advancing and flourishing, it will be impossible to resist the fascist onslaught in general and the attack on scientific reasoning and enquiry in particular.
i https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ancient-india-had-missiles-test-tube-babies-andhra-university-head-1972868
ii https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/stephen-hawking-said-theory-in-vedas-superior-to-einsteins-emc2-union-minister-harsh-vardhan/articleshow/63336406.cms
iii R.S. Anderson. Nucleus and Nation: Scientists, International Networks, and Power in India. University of Chicago Press: Chicago, London. 2010
Comments:
No Comments for View